The document says 40,246 geographical disasters, such as earthquakes and landslides, occurred in China last year, in which 853 people died, 109 went missing and 1,797 were injured. Direct economic losses reached 5.1 billion yuan (US$616 million).

The Ministry of Land and Resources effectively forecast 703 geographical disasters, keeping 19,120 people from possible death or injury and avoiding 236 million yuan (US$28.5 million) in direct economic losses, it says.

The ministry also carried out extensive research into preventing coastal erosion and underground water pollution and improving environmental supervision in the mining industry.

The communique says since the overall program on geographical disaster prevention in the Three Gorges area was approved by the State Council, 195 of 197 projects to prevent landslides and erosion in the area had got underway.

Experts believe these projects, along with a complete disaster monitoring system, will ensure the safety of the world's biggest water conservancy project, built on typical karsts geological structure.

(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2003)